This invention deals generally with animal stalls and more specifically with an adjustable height stall which is constructed to prevent an animal from being trapped when it has part of its body under a stall partition.
Although the oldest type of cattle stall is the conventional style with vertical wood sides, there are several newer designs which use configurations of pipes as side barriers. The stalls constructed from pipes are particularly convenient and economical because they require little maintenance, and such stalls can be largely preassembled, so that it is only necessary to install the preassembled unit in a location within a barn.
However, the pipe barriers do have some problems. In order to facilitate maintenance of the stall, such pipe based stalls are usually built so that they have very few, or even no, supports extending to the stall floor. One such design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,257 by Anderson, which discloses a stall side constructed from a pipe loop supported from a single vertical pole located toward the head end of the stall, the end at which the animal's head is normally located. However, a large open space below the side barrier of a stall whose lowest structure is located above the floor can actually trap an animal in a manner which prevents it from standing up. If, for instance, a cow which is lying in the stall becomes situated so that its head or body is below a horizontal member of a stall side, the cow will not be able to stand up.
It would be beneficial to have a stall structure which is built from pipes to reduce its weight and maintenance and which has clear space below the stall side barrier, but nevertheless prevents an animal from being trapped beneath the stall side barrier.